What’s new

Every update, in plain words.

Speaklively updates itself in the background, so you always have the newest version. Here’s what changed, and why it matters.

Latest: 0.20.3 · 1 November 2026How updates work →
  1. 0.20.3

    1 November 2026

    Latest

    Stays on after an update

    Updates used to wait until you quit, and sometimes left Speaklively switched off afterwards with nothing to say so. Not any more.

    • Updates install themselves when you step away for a couple of minutes, then Speaklively opens again straight away. Or choose Restart to Update in the menu.
    • “Open at login” carries over to every new version — and never switches itself on if you turned it off.
    • New Tell the Maker… in the menu bar. Something broken, confusing or missing? It goes straight to the person who makes Speaklively.
  2. 0.20.2

    23 October 2026

    Polish keeps more of your words

    Polish now runs on a newer Claude model, with instructions written for it.

    • In tests on real dictations it changed far fewer words that were already right, made fewer serious mistakes, and came back a little faster.
    • It keeps the way you talk: your grammar, your contractions, and small words like “okay” and “maybe”.
    • When speech recognition plainly misheard one of your own terms, Polish writes the word you meant — and leaves it alone when it can’t tell.
    • On your own Anthropic key, each Polish now costs about a sixth of what it did.
  3. 0.20.1

    21 October 2026

    Polish and Structure, one click away

    Trying the AI rewrites no longer means a trip to Settings.

    • Press Polish or Structure and the panel offers 15 free rewrites right there — no email needed.
    • The panel opens on Tidy, which stays on your Mac. Your words go to Claude only when you press Polish or Structure.
    • A few small celebrations along the way.
  4. 0.20

    20 October 2026

    Worth reading

    Every press of the key answers you

    If a dictation came back empty, the panel used to just close — no words and no reason. It happened most to people trying Speaklively for the first time.

    • The microphone opens before the panel says “Listening…”, so your first words aren’t lost. A slow mic shows “Starting the mic…” until it’s ready.
    • A press that comes back empty now tells you why in one line — “That was a tap.”, “You let go mid-sentence.” — with a button when the fix is a setting.
    • Nowhere to type? Your words stay on your clipboard instead of disappearing.
    • A shorter setup for new people, and a new look for the panel.
  5. 0.19

    14 September 2026

    Worth reading

    Your words land, even behind a VPN

    Password managers and some company VPNs switch on a macOS setting called secure input. While it was on, Speaklively refused to paste. That was our mistake.

    • Speaklively now simply pastes while secure input is on — on a work Mac behind a VPN, the difference between working and not.
    • When secure input does block fn+Space or fn+Return, the panel says so, once, instead of leaving you guessing.
    • The panel opens on a cleaned-up version of what you said.
  6. 0.18

    4 September 2026

    Choose your microphone

    Use a different mic for dictation without changing it for the rest of your Mac.

    • A microphone picker in Settings that applies to Speaklively only. Every other app carries on as before.
    • If your chosen mic is unplugged it falls back and tells you which one it used.
    • Messages tell apart what you can fix from what you can’t — a network hiccup no longer looks like a broken account.
  7. 0.17

    2 September 2026

    Review opens on the cleaned-up version

    “Review, then insert” used to open on your raw words, so it looked like it did nothing.

    • The panel now opens on Tidy — or Polish, if you’ve set up AI rewrites — with your original one click away.
    • Updates now check that a build really is newer before offering it.
  8. 0.16

    31 August 2026

    Your own dictation shortcut

    fn and right ⌘ are still there. Now there’s a third choice.

    • Record any key combination as your shortcut — including a programmable keyboard’s macro key. Tap to start, tap to finish.
    • Hands-free dictations follow your “After dictating” setting: tap fn to paste, or press Return to read first.

Try the newest version

It takes about a minute to set up, and it keeps itself up to date after that.

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